The Star Wars panel

I found this yoke a couple of years ago on ebay. It was actually from an Apache 3 arcade machine. I cleaned it up, painted it, built a “steering column” of sorts for it and got it working with my cabinet. I used the “Dual Strike hack” (which at the time of writing this post can be found here) to wire the yoke to the computer. As such, this is the first panel I’ve built that doesn’t rely solely on my custom plug architecture. This panel requires a second USB plug-in.

It turns out that a yoke is also the right control for Spy Hunter. Obviously, the buttons to fire weapons and such are a direct mapping, but Spy Hunter apparently used this kind of electronics for its steering yoke as well. What I mean is that it needs potentiometers to register the turning, which is what is on the inside of a Star Wars yoke control. Trying to play Spy Hunter using my Driving panel was just a disaster — which is because of this difference in the control schemes on the two games. Spy Hunter explains the gear shifter on the right (again ebay!).

This panel is the product of a good 2 years’ planning, purchasing, and work. I’m very proud of how it turned out.